This dignified portrait of the republican hero Léon Gambetta (1838-1882) was Roty’s first struck portrait medal after returning to France from Rome, where he held the Grand Prix. Gambetta was a lawyer with republican sympathies who ultimately became an influential republican politician. He acquired a reputation as an anti-imperialist due to his 1868 defense of the journalist Delescluze, who championed the erection of a statue to Baudin, a representative killed while opposing the coup d’état of Louis Napoléon Bonaparte in 1851. Gambetta was elected to the Assembly in 1869, and was positioned to declare the Third Republic in 1870 after the German capture of Napoleon III during the Franco-Prussian War. He served as Minister of the Interior during the war from 1870-1871. During the 16 May 1877 crisis, Gambetta supported the powers of the legislature over those of a conservative president, helping to ensure the moderate republicanism of the Third Republic. These key events are given on the ribbon wrapped around oak and laurel branches on the medal’s reverse, and accompany the inscription: “The love of liberty is greater than the love of country.”

 

Roty, together with Jean Baptiste Daniel-Dupuis and Jules-Clément Chaplain, is considered one of the leaders of the revival of medallic art during the Art Nouveau era. He won the Grand Prix de Rome in 1875, in 1885 he was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, and in 1889 he was promoted to Officer of the Legion of Honor. In 1888 he was appointed Professor at the Académie des Beaux-Arts, and in 1897 he was named President of the Académie.   Scarce.

 

This medal will appeal to collectors interested in French history and politics, and the Third Republic.

 

Extremely fine, superb condition. Nice even medium brown patina. See pictures.

 

Artist: Louis-Oscar Roty (1846-1911)

Title: Léon Gambetta (1883)

Material: bronze

Size: 69 mm

Weight: 134 gr

Inscriptions:

Obverse: LEON GAMBETTA 2 AVRIL 1838 31 DECEMBRE 1882; signed O. Roty

Reverse: LIBERTATIS AMORE/ MAGNUS/ PATRIAE AMORE/ MAJOR, on the ribbon: BAUDIN 1868/ [GUE]RRE 1870 1871/ MAI 1877

Edge: Cornucopia, BRONZE

Mint: Monnaie de Paris

Reference: Leonard Forrer, Biographical Dictionary of Medallists, vol. 5, p. 230

 

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In the coming weeks I will be listing many Art Nouveau and Art Deco medals and plaquettes, from France, Belgium and Austria, which I have collected over the past twenty years. They are by the leading medalists of the period, and many are rare.